Canada, Brazil and the general review

Brazil is the largest state in South America: its area is about 8.5 million km² (5th in the world), population about 212 million and capital Brasília. It is washed by the Atlantic Ocean in the east and borders every South American state except Chile and Ecuador. It is a presidential republic and a federation of 26 states and a Federal District. The relief is mostly lowlands and plateaus: the Amazon lowland in the north and the Brazilian Highlands in the south. Minerals: iron ore (Minas Gerais, Carajás), bauxite, nickel, copper, gold and oil, with offshore oil important. The climate is equatorial and subequatorial: hot and humid. The world’s most water-rich river, the Amazon, has in its basin humid equatorial forests – one of the planet’s largest forest areas and a great store of biodiversity; deforestation and fires are a serious environmental problem and protecting the forest matters for the whole world. The population is not growing fast, natural increase being about 0.5–0.8 % a year; urbanisation is above 85 %; the biggest cities are São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Brazilians are a mix of peoples: Europeans, descendants of Africans, mulattoes, indigenous peoples and others; the official language is Portuguese and most are Catholic. The south-east coast is very dense and the Amazon forest very sparsely populated. Brazil has Latin America’s largest economy, among the ten largest in the world. Industry: metallurgy, car making, aircraft building, shipbuilding and electronics. Much electricity comes from hydropower (Itaipu); it is among world leaders in producing biofuel (ethanol) from sugar cane. Farming is commercial: soybeans, coffee, sugar, maize and oranges; Brazil is a world leader in exports of soybeans, coffee, sugar and beef.